Hi guys,

I'm wondering how I can monitor my system usage while playing Skyrim. I particularly want to know about RAM and VRAM usage but viewing my CPU usage across all cores would also be great. I'm hoping there is a free (legally free) solution.

My specs if it helps:

Core i5 2500k
8GB RAM
Radeon 5870 1 GB

for gpu - gpu-z; MSI Afterburner (does OC'ing, monitoring, or both)
cpu/ram - CPUMon; All-CPU meter gadget for windows; in-house Windows 7 Performance Monitor

I'd also recommend GPU-Z. Just make sure to check the box on the bottom of the sesnors tab, the one that says to keep recording info when GPU-Z is in the background.

I also use MSI Afterburner, but the OSD is not visible when using a post-processing injector. Other shader mods may also prevent the OSD from being visible.

http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/sysinternals/bb896653

Thanks guys, having a look at these programs now. Edit: Oh wow, GPU-Z doesn't even need installing

Hi guys, so I'm back with a further question now I have looked at my graphics memory usage. My card is using all its memory (well very nearly, over 900mb on a 1GB card). What does this mean, does this mean my card is maxed out and can't take anymore? Or does it mean the game/card are working efficiently and using all thats available?
Note: Thats the dedicated mem, the dynamic mem was a very small amount, but I'm not quite sure what that means.

Can I add a HD texture mod? Or is this it for me

Quoted this because this will show you more then..MSI, GPU'z can. it will show you how much "system RAM " is in use.

I also only have a 1 GB GPU (560ti) and am using all my ram. At times even using 250 MEG in addition, (System RAM) I have installed some HD mods.......

Detailed Faces
Detailed lips
EDT <Hi rez Tree stumps
Earth & Moon Hi rez
Better Gold <<CFBM_BBE
Sky UI
Skyrim HD 1.2 lite
Vurts Flora
HQ 3 D Map
Quality world map _roads.

At times I wonder why I am not going to far over the 1 GB on my card?...But i can play for really extended sessions and no crashes. to date my longest straight run is 19 hours. your mileage may vary.

To clarify ...when I had the FULL version of the Skyrim HD mod is when I was going over the cards 1 GB (by 250 MB) so thats when I installed the lite version. So at this point, in order to install any other mod i would need to uninstall something else.

Using Process explorer (link in Quote) you can look at the graph and it shows you the last 3 or so hours. Very helpful.

Think the "Dynamic MEM" is system RAM given to the GPU.

Planing my next Build, think 4 GB card min..Sigh...need donations...LMAO.

lol, I'm planning a card upgrade too. New Radeon is out, ￡500... no way. Checked out Nvidia cards with 4GB mem and same, so its a no go for me, especially as this 5870 has lasted me very well and is still performing good, IIC it was about ￡200, makes the cost of the high mem cards sound very excessive.

I notice when people ask in this forum about new builds people come in quoting $600 to $1000 machines. Either things are massively cheaper in the USA or I'm looking in the wrong place, ￡500 is more than a whole $600 rig!

What happens when the game needs more vram then what's available is you'll get performance drops depending on how far over the edge it needs and (to a lesser degree) how fast your regular system memory is. 100MB to clear is a pretty good breathing space, you can probably still pack some more mods in there Just keep an eye on it is all if you're trying out big mods and the like that's all.

Nvidia Inspector has an excellent monitoring window on it as well